Newly signed Strikeforce superstar Dan Henderson is in "end stage" negotiations to face Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields at the organizations next CBS event in April.

FiveKnuckles.com learned of the impending match-up from sources close to the organization, and though bout agreements have yet to be signed, the fight is in the process of being finalized according to multiple official sources.

Henderson (25-7) is coming off of three-straight wins over Rousimar Palhares, Rich Franklin, and Michael Bisping, respectively, to close out his recent UFC stint. He leaves the organization as one of its top middleweight contenders and gave champion Anderson Silva one of his biggest challenges when the two met at UFC 82 back in March of 2008.

A true legend of the sport, Henderson is the only fighter to simultaneously hold two titles in two separate weight classes for a major organization (Pride). After Pride's demise, he was picked up by the UFC where he battled UFC champions Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (light-heavyweight) and Anderson Silva (middleweight) to two straight losses before rebounding, as mentioned, to win his next three outings.

He'll jump right into the fire with Strikeforce against Shields for the organizations' middleweight championship title.

Shields (24-4-1) hasn't lost a fight in over five years, producing 13-straight wins over that span. The Cesar Gracie product was forced to move up to middleweight from welterweight due to a lack of quality competition and was tossed directly into the fray against top-5 middleweight Robbie Lawler in his middleweight debut in June of this year.

He quickly dispatched of the much larger Lawler via guillotine choke in the very first round of their five-round scheduled contest to earn Strikeforce's middleweight title. He then defended that title last month against the highly regarded Jason "Mayhem" Miller at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers.

Strikeforce's upcoming April event is set to be its second on CBS. The first was headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers which drew 5.46 million viewers, landing the fight among the top-10 most watched MMA contests in history.

Emelianenko is also scheduled to anchor the April card as well, though an opponent for that match up has yet to be named.

And everyone always roots against him so I'm going to have to by a bandcar instead....gas prices are getting too high..

I wouldnt say Shields has a badnwagon. I think of someone that has a bandwagon as being like Jon Jones or Dan Hardy, guys that seem to have talent but havent beaten anyone of real consequence. Shields has one of the more impressive records in the sport outside of the UFC. Condit, Lawler, Okami, Daley, Miller, Thomson, Imada, Sakurai, soon to add Hendo! I am a proud Jake Shields nutthugger.

I wouldnt say Shields has a badnwagon. I think of someone that has a bandwagon as being like Jon Jones or Dan Hardy, guys that seem to have talent but havent beaten anyone of real consequence. Shields has one of the more impressive records in the sport outside of the UFC. Condit, Lawler, Okami, Daley, Miller, Thomson, Imada, Sakurai, soon to add Hendo! I am a proud Jake Shields nutthugger.

Where have you been all my life?

lol, I've been preaching Jake Shields on this forum for a couple of years now.

And every fight I'm the only fan around.

Everyone said....Daley would beat him, Lawler would beat him....hell I had a few guys telling me that Nick Thompson would KO him.

But the thing is, his hybrid wrestling and Gracie BJJ is just too much for alot of fighters to handle and he knows how to finish fighters, he's always the underdog, and he's fought tough competition his whole carreer.

He's a vet and Hendo isn't going to walk through him in any sense of the phrase.

A lot of people fail to realize or refuse to acknowledge that Jake Shields has one of the best grounds games in the world of mma. I cant really think of many people that are even in his league when it comes to having such a great combination of wrestling and top level bjj. There are great wrestlers like Hendo, Randy, Kosheck and there are great bjj guys like Filho, Maia, and Jacare, but there are very few who are as good at both wrestling and bjj like Shields. If Shields could ever manage to evolve his stand up he would have a good chance at being the best fighter on the planet. As of right now though, his stand up is akward at best. Anyway, I think Hendo will be in a world of trouble if Shields is able to get this fight into the later rounds.